


In Different Worlds

by GalaxyAqua



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: F/M, dating sim
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-30
Updated: 2015-12-30
Packaged: 2018-05-10 09:26:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5580245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalaxyAqua/pseuds/GalaxyAqua
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Hajime Hinata slips the disc into his computer for the first time, he isn’t expecting anything big. The guys at school had laughed about things like these – said dating sims were made for losers with ‘no game’ (but wasn’t this technically a game anyway? Whatever, he thinks, he doesn’t really care), but he had to try this thing, if only once in his lifetime. Just because he’s curious.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Different Worlds

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the song [Rainbow Girl](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfcUuBdo_DA)!
> 
> Also, for reference's sake, here's a [fanmade HinaNami video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M1Z_8MvRJo) to the very same song!

When Hajime Hinata slips the disc into his computer for the first time, he isn’t expecting anything big. The guys at school had laughed about things like these – said dating sims were made for losers with ‘no game’ (but wasn’t this technically a game anyway? Whatever, he thinks, he doesn’t really care), but he had to try this thing, if only once in his lifetime. Just because he’s curious.

Or at least it’s all he can reassure himself with, when the loading screen pops up and he meets the love interests in one go, straight off the bat. One of them falls off the balcony and right on top of his player character. He pauses a second to question the writing of this game, but shakes his head and moves on.

There’s a room full of these girls, many looking like the designers tried way too hard to make them aesthetically pleasing, but one in particular catches his eye.

A girl drawn with the finest curves and lines, a sleepy look about her and a muted, lovely colours scheme of purples and pinks and blues. She’s… well, she’s cute. Her design is rather simple, but it suits. He hovers the cursor over her, and when she’s highlighted, he clicks.

[ _Hello there.]_ is the player’s standard greeting. He takes this moment to roam her character design for quirks and indications of her interests. A pixelated hairclip, a console in hand. She seems to be a gamer, of some sorts.

[ _What’s your name?_ ] she asks, blinking her pretty magenta eyes.

He knows he’s in for a ride now, when he gulps and types with shaky fingers.

[ _Hajime._ ]

* * *

She is a 2D girl that belongs to the game and the game alone. Nanami knows that. She knew that the moment the screen came to life and she was looking at the face of a curious, wide-eyed boy who had probably never played a dating sim in his life.

It was endearing, really. She had expected worse – always expected worse, but he was courteous and kind to her, and even apologized during the more compromising parts of her route. As if he didn’t want to do the things the player was programmed to do. As if he wanted to know her as himself, and not as the nameless face Nanami was interacting with.

“Let me tell you more about that thing that happened the other day,” he’d say with a wave of his hand as he clicked through commands. “Well, you probably don’t care that much, but for some reason, it makes me kinda happy to be able to talk to you like this.”

She didn’t know what to make of it.

[ _How are you today, Hajime?_ ] she would ask, because it’s a part of the script and she can never defy the script.

[ _Great, thanks._ ] He would choose as the option, but he’d expand with his voice and with his gestures. His voice would filter through the mic with only the slightest crackle – his words were often very clear. Nanami finds herself looking forward to these stories more than anything. Stories about the real world. Stories about Hajime’s life.

“Who would have thought,” he begins, right where he last left off the night before, “That some people would be insensitive enough to let the poor guy get robbed of his groceries, right? I mean, if I was there, I’d definitely help them out. Even if it’s like, two cans of soda or something. Who even steals that?”

Nanami wants to laugh, but it’s not in her data.

[ _Wanna come over and play video games?_ ] she says instead. In the real context, it wouldn’t make sense, but she has to remind herself that she ultimately does belong to the universe of the game she’s in.

[ _Sure._ ] He picks, still blabbering on.

“I know this guy though – or at least I’ve seen him around – and he has the absolute worst luck, like you wouldn’t even believe…”

[ _Are you staying over tonight?_ ]

Hajime halts, and shakes his head.

[ _Not tonight, sorry. I’m busy._ ]

He always took care of her so well, because he knew where these options led. His kindness. His consideration, even towards a girl in the 2D world.

Slowly, but surely, Nanami feels like her code is being hacked right into. It hurts.

[ _I see. Maybe next time then.]_

He nods, and sighs.

[ _What kinds of games are your favorite?_ ]

She hates asking these same questions over and over.

[ _Do you enjoy spending time with me?_ ]

She wishes there was an option for her to choose what to say to him. What to say to this person who is kind, and smiles wide, and talks to her all about his day.

[ _I’m feeling a little sleepy now, so can… you take over for me?_ ]

That option will never exist.

So she will keep listening to Hajime every day, and hoping for a miracle.

* * *

If, for even just a moment, she could come out of the screen and enter his world, Nanami is sure she would do so. And if she could, she would say that she’s sorry. She’s sorry that she’s not real. That she’s unable to spend time with him like she wants to. That she’s unable to tell him how she really feels, because even in-game, such an ending doesn’t exist.

She lets him play. She lets him figure it out.

She falls in love.

It hurts.

[ _I’m so glad you’re always there for me._ ]

That is one of the only lines that cut even a little bit close.

Hajime’s smile almost makes the whole thing worth it.

Almost.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbles to herself, when he’s shut off for the day and she’s all alone. The other girls in the game don’t tend to feel the way she does – they treat it as a job and nothing else. But Nanami looks up at the screen before her, and _feels_ something. “I’m sorry, Hajime.”

* * *

She should be expecting it, because it’s all pre-written in the script, but she isn’t, and it catches her off guard.

[ _I love you._ ]

It’s the player’s words, but when he clicks on that option, Nanami feels her heart – or what should be her heart – swell. She wants desperately to say something back, anything of her true feelings, but she knows she will never be able to. So she tries to be happy, with this much. Just this much.

Yet something inside also fills her with dread.

The game is over.

“Oh,” she hears Hajime say, as if he’s just coming to the same conclusion. “Oh.”

* * *

He keeps playing a little, figuring out the other routes, but he doesn’t seem all that invested anymore. Hajime tells her that she was definitely the best route, and the others really just don’t do anything for him. He still talks to her sometimes, but the others are tiring him out.

He restarts just to see her again. She’s touched beyond all reason.  

 “This was just a one-time thing,” he confesses, rubbing the back of his neck. “I just wanted to know what dating sims were like, you know? And it was fun. Playing with you. I really enjoyed it.”

 [ _Hi. My name is Nanami Chiaki. I like playing games. It’s nice to meet you, Hajime._ ] God, she wishes, she just wishes she could tell him the truth. All she can do is say the same things over and over again…

[ _Oh, it’s nice to meet you too. I hope we get along well._ ] Even though the player is in the same predicament – how come it only affects her? Because she can see his face behind the screen? Because he can say things to her without restraint, while she can’t move anywhere without the script?

[ _Me too… I think._ ]

His smile softens. “I guess this is it though. I wonder why I feel kind of… sad? That’s weird, don’t you think? Haha, maybe I got attached to you somehow… man, if the other guys heard about this, they’d never let me live it down…”

She wishes she could reach out from the screen and tell him to talk to her more, to stay longer, not to leave just yet.

“Yeah. I just. I wanted to talk to you one last time. Even if that sounds stupid. I loved all of this, and that’s not a lie. I loved talking to you. I loved you. Not in that weird way, like, I wouldn’t lick the screen or something creepy like that – but, agh, you know! I just. You were awesome, Chiaki. I can say your first name too, can’t I? Haha, though you can’t really reply to something like that…”

But Nanami knows already. Even if the game ends and the player is still playing; something like this is never going to last forever.

Once the player gets bored, it’s truly, truly over.

“Thank you for loving me.” The words leave Nanami’s lips, fading into the empty cyberspace.

It’s not scripted, but it’s the last she can do, to convey her true feelings for the player behind the screen – the one who would no longer meet with her every day, and the one who would put her on a shelf to soon be forgotten.

“Alright,” he straightens, and she has her tiniest hopes dashed as soon as he works his way to the ‘manage programs’ menu. “I guess this really is the end. I need to download stuff from school, so I can’t keep the games, unfortunately. They take up too much space. I hope you understand.”

But of course, having him actually hear her words … is too much to ask for, in the end. She watches him fumble around with the cursor; deleting, deleting, to free up more and more space. It hurts, but she knows this is her fate, and she’s only glad that she sees him hesitate just once.

“Goodbye, Nanami,” he whispers. He clicks uninstall.  

“I’m really grateful,” she says, as the screen goes black, and she can’t see him anymore. “That I met you, Hajime.”

-

-

-

[ _Please don’t forget about me_.]


End file.
